- Joined
- Oct 3, 2019
- Messages
- 13,867
- Reaction score
- 40,746
- Points
- 148
After a grueling three games in four nights the Cavs get two welcome days off before their second and final game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Cavs will be playing their first home game without Caris LeVert and the G Wagon. De’Andre Hunter will be making his Cavaliers debut. Sam Merrill is not on the injury report so I assume he will be available.
The Cavs beat the Wolves in Minnesota on Jan. 18 by a 124-117 score. Evan Mobley was out. Dean Wade and Caris LeVert were in the starting lineup and combined for 10 points in 52 minutes, but they will not be playing this time. Garland and Mitchell lit up the Wolves for 29 and 36 points and Ty Jerome was a +28. The Cavs only committed 7 turnovers and went 23-for-25 from the line.
This time around the Cavs will have Mobley and Hunter while the Wolves will be without Julius Randle, who had a line of 20/14/9 that game, taking advantage of Mobley’s absence . They will also be missing sixth man Donte DiVincenzo. Between Randle and DiVincenzo they average 30 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists per game. Starting point guard Mike Conley is a game time decision.
The Wolves are on a roll having won 8 of 10, but only three of those wins were against teams over .500. In the last two weeks they rank 2nd in the NBA in point differential; 4th offensively and 5th defensively. DiVincenzo has been out since Jan. 15 but that hasn’t stopped them from winning.
The Wolves are 15-15 against teams over .500 and 15-11 on the road. Overall the Wolves are 30-23 and 8-9 against the East.
For the season the Wolves rank 19th in scoring and 4th in scoring defense. That didn’t stop the Cavs from putting 124 points on them in Minnesota three weeks ago without Mobley, however. Their defensive numbers are outstanding across the board and obviously Rudy Gobert has a lot to do with that. I don’t see any weaknesses defensively, but the Cavs figured something out that night.
Offensively the Wolves are extremely dependent on 3-point shooting, ranking 24th in points in the paint and 26th on fast break points. They’re similar to the Celtics in that they don’t try to force the ball to the rim or run a lot of fast breaks, but try to get open 3-point looks in the half-court offense. They are 25th in field goal attempts per game due to playing slow (26th in pace) and committing more turnovers than average.
The Wolves rank 5th in 3-point rate and 3rd in 3-point shooting percentage, so it's all about the 3. In the first game against the Cavs they hit 39.5%; about one percent better than their average.
The Cavs and T-Wolves rank 4th and 5th in 3-rate, so we should see a lot of 3’s on both ends. The Wolves rank 23rd in shooting percentage on 2’s so the Cavs should try to force them off the 3-point line. They’re not good at the rim (18th) and especially bad at mid-range shots (28th).
The Wolves are not a good offensive team to begin with and without Randle and DiVincenzo they’re missing 30 points and 9 assists. Anthony Edwards averages 27 points on 45% from the field and 42% on 3’s. Backup center Naz Reid averages 14 points on 48% and 42%. He had 16 against the Cavs last month. After Edwards and Reid nobody available for this game is averaging more than 11 points.
Mike Conley, 37, starts at point guard and he rarely shoots, averaging 8 points per game. Rudy Gobert and PF Jaden McDaniels each average 11 points.
Conley and Edwards sat out Saturday’s win over Portland, Edwards with a hip problem and Conley with a sprained finger. Both are game time decisions.
On paper this looks like a win for Cleveland as the Cavs beat them in Minnesota recently and since then the Wolves lost Randle while the Cavs added Mobley and Hunter. However, they lost Niang, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds that game, and LeVert, who had a bad game with 2 points in 25 minutes coming off his injury.
Getting two days off and playing at home where they are 24-4 certainly bodes well for the Cavs, but they can’t forget that the Wolves have been playing very well lately, maybe due to Randle being out.
From the Minnesota Post:
Randle does not fit in a lineup that already has an isolation scorer in Anthony Edwards and a space-clogging big man in Rudy Gobert. His virtues involve a lot of ball possession and the Wolves offense can’t afford those touches…
The hope is that Randle plays well enough to garner a decent return on the trade market, either by the Feb. 6 trade deadline or in the offseason. The Wolves – and, to be fair, Randle – have expended a lot of time and energy trying to integrate him in a manner that bolsters the current team and brightens his future elsewhere. But that is becoming a gulf too far and the status quo is increasingly becoming a damaging prospect for both sides.
The Cavs beat the Wolves in Minnesota on Jan. 18 by a 124-117 score. Evan Mobley was out. Dean Wade and Caris LeVert were in the starting lineup and combined for 10 points in 52 minutes, but they will not be playing this time. Garland and Mitchell lit up the Wolves for 29 and 36 points and Ty Jerome was a +28. The Cavs only committed 7 turnovers and went 23-for-25 from the line.
This time around the Cavs will have Mobley and Hunter while the Wolves will be without Julius Randle, who had a line of 20/14/9 that game, taking advantage of Mobley’s absence . They will also be missing sixth man Donte DiVincenzo. Between Randle and DiVincenzo they average 30 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists per game. Starting point guard Mike Conley is a game time decision.
The Wolves are on a roll having won 8 of 10, but only three of those wins were against teams over .500. In the last two weeks they rank 2nd in the NBA in point differential; 4th offensively and 5th defensively. DiVincenzo has been out since Jan. 15 but that hasn’t stopped them from winning.
The Wolves are 15-15 against teams over .500 and 15-11 on the road. Overall the Wolves are 30-23 and 8-9 against the East.
For the season the Wolves rank 19th in scoring and 4th in scoring defense. That didn’t stop the Cavs from putting 124 points on them in Minnesota three weeks ago without Mobley, however. Their defensive numbers are outstanding across the board and obviously Rudy Gobert has a lot to do with that. I don’t see any weaknesses defensively, but the Cavs figured something out that night.
Offensively the Wolves are extremely dependent on 3-point shooting, ranking 24th in points in the paint and 26th on fast break points. They’re similar to the Celtics in that they don’t try to force the ball to the rim or run a lot of fast breaks, but try to get open 3-point looks in the half-court offense. They are 25th in field goal attempts per game due to playing slow (26th in pace) and committing more turnovers than average.
The Wolves rank 5th in 3-point rate and 3rd in 3-point shooting percentage, so it's all about the 3. In the first game against the Cavs they hit 39.5%; about one percent better than their average.
The Cavs and T-Wolves rank 4th and 5th in 3-rate, so we should see a lot of 3’s on both ends. The Wolves rank 23rd in shooting percentage on 2’s so the Cavs should try to force them off the 3-point line. They’re not good at the rim (18th) and especially bad at mid-range shots (28th).
The Wolves are not a good offensive team to begin with and without Randle and DiVincenzo they’re missing 30 points and 9 assists. Anthony Edwards averages 27 points on 45% from the field and 42% on 3’s. Backup center Naz Reid averages 14 points on 48% and 42%. He had 16 against the Cavs last month. After Edwards and Reid nobody available for this game is averaging more than 11 points.
Mike Conley, 37, starts at point guard and he rarely shoots, averaging 8 points per game. Rudy Gobert and PF Jaden McDaniels each average 11 points.
Conley and Edwards sat out Saturday’s win over Portland, Edwards with a hip problem and Conley with a sprained finger. Both are game time decisions.
On paper this looks like a win for Cleveland as the Cavs beat them in Minnesota recently and since then the Wolves lost Randle while the Cavs added Mobley and Hunter. However, they lost Niang, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds that game, and LeVert, who had a bad game with 2 points in 25 minutes coming off his injury.
Getting two days off and playing at home where they are 24-4 certainly bodes well for the Cavs, but they can’t forget that the Wolves have been playing very well lately, maybe due to Randle being out.
From the Minnesota Post:
Randle does not fit in a lineup that already has an isolation scorer in Anthony Edwards and a space-clogging big man in Rudy Gobert. His virtues involve a lot of ball possession and the Wolves offense can’t afford those touches…
The hope is that Randle plays well enough to garner a decent return on the trade market, either by the Feb. 6 trade deadline or in the offseason. The Wolves – and, to be fair, Randle – have expended a lot of time and energy trying to integrate him in a manner that bolsters the current team and brightens his future elsewhere. But that is becoming a gulf too far and the status quo is increasingly becoming a damaging prospect for both sides.
